Thanksgiving Menu

How many of you have already planned out your Thanksgiving menu?  Are you taking advantage of great sales prices to stock up.  Butter, cream cheese, turkey, ham, and cranberries are just a few of the items I have been finding at great prices right now.

This year my oldest daughter, Lauren, has decided to host Thanksgiving dinner at her home.  They also live out in the country and have a nice lake just out their back yard.  I'm sure some canoeing and shooting will be going on as well as eating lots of good food and chasing little ones.  I am so thankful that both of my married daughters live close enough for easy visits and we can still be together for one of our favorite holidays.

Our Thanksgiving menu rarely changes through the years.  I'll be baking a turkey and ham, a sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and a dessert that my food allergic boys can eat.  Devin will be making our sweet and sour beans and another dessert.  Lauren is going to try her hand at dressing this year.  She called yesterday wanting the recipe.  Does anyone really use a recipe?  Years spent watching my mamaw and my mama make dressing and being the taste-tester taught me how to make it.  I made a few changes here and there, but we love our dressing.  She'll have to get experience and make it her own.  She also mentioned a caramel apple cheesecake.  Oh, my!!  Grandmother will be bringing rolls and our traditional cranberry/apple casserole.  Here is a link to some of our favorite holiday recipes.  I would love for you to share some of yours with us!!


Chocolate chess pies, blueberry cream cheese pies, sweet and sour beans and cranberry apple casserole recipes are here.
http://busyhandsbusyminds.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-thanksgiving-dinner-recipes.html

Thanksgiving Blessings

We are counting our blessings today!  How about you?

-thankful for the completed work of Christ

-a home that gives us shelter

-a job that Jeff loves

-children who are growing in Godly wisdom

-freezers, a refrigerator and shelves stocked with wonderful foods

-hands that are willing to work

-minds that are capable of learning

-music in our home

-sweet snuggles from little guys

-a shoulder to lean on when the day has been wild

-tools to get a job done

-medical help when it is needed

-friends who encourage

-books, books and more books

-Gods' amazing grace

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care?

Does the cross seem heavy you alre called to bear?

Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,

And you will be singing as the days go by.

When you look at others, with their lands and gold,

Think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold;

Count your many blessings, money cannot buy

Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.

So, amid the conflict, whether great or small, 

Do not be discourage, God is over all;

Count your many blessings, angels will attend,

Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.

Count your blessings, name them one by one;

Count your blessings, see what God hath done; 

 Count your blessings, name them one by one;

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.

Johnson Oatman, Jr.

Our yard

The Sights, Sounds and Smells

The turkey will soon be put in the roaster.

Thankgiving ornaments tucked in among our readers.

A variety of pies and cakes will soon be in the oven.

  

A  lone Pilgrim woman among the Landmark book collection

The casseroles, dressing and dinner rolls are in the freezer.

A little antique horse-drawn fire engine shares space with a collection of old storybooks.

Formal dishes need to be washed.

The "golden" turkey Jackson received last year at my mom's White Elephant Christmas swap.  He loves it and will proudly take it to his own home one day!

The house is somewhat in order.

Faith, hope and love....but the greatest of these is LOVE!  But really, without faith you can't  have love!

Our hearts are overflowing with gratitude for the many blessings that God has bestowed upon us this year.

We have fellowshipped.  We have maintained some family traditions.

Sweet co-op friends gave this wreath to me one year along with the table wreath in the Faith Hope Love picture.

Tomorrow we will feast and worship with family...old and young!

Some of our Thanksgiving feast will come from our own garden harvest!

Not a great picture, but I won this from the Pumpkin Pie Painter.  It's gorgeous in real life!

Psalm 36:  5-9

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, 

your faithfulness to the skies.

Your righeousness is like the mighty mountains,

your justice like the great deep.

O Lord, you preserve both man and beast.

How priceless is your unfailing love!

Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.

They feast on the abundance of your house;

you give them drink from your river of delights.

For with you is the fountain of life;

in your light we see light.

May you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving!!

Thankful All My Days-Day One

Today I am starting up a list of things I am thankful for throughout this month.  As he has been away from home for the last few days and is traveling many miles to come home to those of us who miss him, I thought I would start with my husband, Jeff.

Provider:  He is a hard working father who has always worked more than one job to provide for his family.  He doesn't only provide for us financially, but he provides opportunities for us to work  together on various projects around our homestead and teaches us all the value of hard work.

Priest:  Most evenings find us gathering together as a family to sing in worship and to study the Bible together.  He encourages us all to study God's Word in our daily quiet times and makes sure we are involved in corporate worship as well.  He leads his family not only in work, but deed.

Protector:  He protects us from the evil in this world by making sure we do not view questionable materials over the tv or internet.  He encourages us to guard our hearts from wickedness.  He teaches the children to shoot.  ; )  He cautions us to be ever watchful of our time and energy...to make sure that we are using it to bring glory to God.

In the 28 years that we have been married we have gone from young adults to middle aged grandparents.  Young college students to students of life.  From small family to large.  From  town dwellers to country homesteaders.  But one thing has remained.  Jeff has been steadfastly devoted to me...to our union and to our family.  Yes, I am thankful for my husband.  




Linking up here
http://www.surrenderedlivingnow.com/2011/11/02/in-all-things-give-thanks-thankful-thursday-link-up/

Thanksgiving Resources---Again

We've been blessed and busy with extended family this week, but I just hate to miss out on a visit with everyone!  Thought I would repost this bit on our favorite Thanksgiving resources.  I am finding it hard to believe that November will be here in just a few days!  That also means our final birthday of the year...Jordan turns 19 on Friday!  Oh, my!  I would love it if you would share some of our family's favorite Thanksgiving resources or traditions in the comments!

I wanted to share with you all a few of our family's favorite Thanksgiving resources.  I am not an Amazon affiliate (don't think I want to be) and don't have time today to link up to christianbook.com, but some of these books are available from christianbook.com and if you decide to purchase I would appreciate it if you went through the little button on the right of my blog page.

--I found the ThanksLiving Treasures box years ago on a clearance table in a Christian bookstore.  It has been the best investment.  The box contains:

 a 56-page booklet containing six biblically-based lessons on thankfulness form the Pilgrims'        exciting adventures along with creative ideas on family celebrations for Thanksgiving

A tablet of My Treasures pages to record and preserve your family's expressions of thankfulness from year to year

Five historically symbolic objects including a miniature Bible, replicas of the Mayflower and Mayflower Compact, a stone cross and a cluster of Indian corn

Five full-color 5 x 7 reprints of historic paintings depicting scenes from the Pilgrims' journey to the New World

A keepsake treasure box to store these contents and other cherished family photos or mementos

We have enjoyed this so much over the years and the children look forward to our time remembering the Pilgrims and how God led them to settle here in the New World.

--Another resource, again from Family Life, written by Barbara Rainey is Thanksgiving;  A Time to Remember.    This book is beautifully illustrated, has pages for  your own Thanksgiving journal entries and comes with a CD of beautiful Thanksgiving hymns and praises.

--A sweet book that was discarded from our local library:  Autumn Harvest by Alvin Tresselt.  With the exception of one page about Halloween this book is a treasure from another time, describing fall and harvest time in a country setting.

-Another library discard;  The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh.  This is a classic Thanksgiving story retelling.  It is simply written and simply illustrated.  A perfect book for an introduction about Thanksgiving to younger children.

-One of my precious Thanksgiving memories is reading Louisa May Alcott's An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving to my children as we were driving to my mother's home for Thanksgiving one year.  What a precious story of children being resourceful and working together to bless their parents.  A couple of years ago I found a picture book version illustrated by James Bernardin that is just beautiful and includes Miss Alcott's recipe for apple slump!

-Still another library discard:  Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock? by Jean Fritz.  Like her other books this one has illustrations that tend to be a bit comical, but not disrespectfully so.  This book tells what happened to the actual Plymouth Rock in the centuries after the landing of the Pilgrims.

-Eating the Plates:  A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners is a great book for studying the customs and eating habits of the Pilgrims and early settlers.  It also includes a Pilgrim menu and recipes which include fresh corn soup, red pickled eggs, Hot Indian Pudding, Succotash Stew, Spicy Cucumber Catsup, Bannock Cakes, Whole Baked Pumpkin Stuffed with Apples, Bearberry Jelly (cranberry), Swizzle and Hot Nuts.  This is a very interesting book!

-Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin is a book from my childhood.  This is a story about befriending those who may look and be different and takes place in New England.  A fun story for kids of all ages.

-The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern is a beautifully illustrated tale of the first Thanksgiving which "introduces children to the struggles of the Pilgrims during their first year at Plymouth Colony and the events leading to the historic occasion we celebrate today--THANKSGIVING."

-The Thanksgiving Primer is a "complete guide to re-creating the first harvest festival for your family, friends or church."  Includes primary sources, pictures from Plimoth Plantation, an order of service, music, a menu and recipes.  There are even drawings to use to design your own Pilgrim costumes.

-Of Plimouth Plantation by William Bradford is a bit heavy for the younger crowd, but a must-read for the older ones....at least portions of it!  We can only know what actually happened by reading first-hand accounts and you can't get more first-hand than this book written by the long-time governor of the Pilgrims.

-Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxes is another beautifully illustrated book that tells  how God prepared Squanto to be just a tremendous help to the First Comers.  A must read for the younger children, your older ones will enjoy it as well.

 -For years Jeff has read from Margaret Pumphrey's Pilgrim Stories (sometimes entitled Story of the Pilgrims) to the children each night during the month of November.  This is a highlight for the children and due to several church meetings this month it has been put off until this week.  Jeff was going to drop it for this year, but the children wouldn't let him.  It is so special to see big and little children gathered to hear daddy read!

While I know that it is too late for you to purchase these books for this year, perhaps you can find them for next year's Thanksgiving season.  Your time spent teaching your children about the true reason we celebrate Thanksgiving will be richly blessed.


Linking up at Learning to Live a Surrendered Life

Thanksgiving Resources

I wanted to share with you all a few of our family's favorite Thanksgiving resources.  I am not an Amazon affiliate (don't think I want to be) and don't have time today to link up to christianbook.com, but some of these books are available from christianbook.com and if you decide to purchase I would appreciate it if you went through the little button on the right.

--I found the ThanksLiving Treasures box years ago on a clearance table in a Christian bookstore.  It has been the best investment.  The box contains:

 a 56-page booklet containing six biblically-based lessons on thankfulness form the Pilgrims'        exciting adventures along with creative ideas on family celebrations for Thanksgiving

A tablet of My Treasures pages to record and preserve your family's expressions of thankfulness from year to year

Five historically symbolic objects including a miniature Bible, replicas of the Mayflower and Mayflower Compact, a stone cross and a cluster of Indian corn

Five full-color 5 x 7 reprints of historic paintings depicting scenes from the Pilgrims' journey to the New World

A keepsake treasure box to store these contents and other cherished family photos or mementos

We have enjoyed this so much over the years and the children look forward to our time remembering the Pilgrims and how God led them.

--Another resource, again from Family Life, written by Barbara Rainey is Thanksgiving;  A Time to Remember.      This book is beautifully illustrated, has pages for  your own Thanksgiving journal entries and comes with a CD of beautiful Thanksgiving hymns and praises.

--A sweet book that was discarded from our local library:  Autumn Harvest by Alvin Tresselt.  With the exception of one page about Halloween this book is a treasure from another time, describing fall and harvest time in a country setting.

-Another library discard;  The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh.  This is a classic Thanksgiving story retelling.  It is simply written and simply illustrated.  A perfect book for an introduction about Thanksgiving to younger children.

-One of my precious Thanksgiving memories is reading Louisa May Alcott's An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving to my children as we were driving to my mother's home for Thanksgiving one year.  What a precious story of children being resourceful and working together to bless their parents.  A couple of years ago I found a picture book version illustrated by James Bernardin that is just beautiful and includes Miss Alcott's recipe for apple slump!

-Still another library discard:  Who's That Stepping on Plymouth Rock? by Jean Fritz.  Like her other books this one has illustrations that tend to be a bit comical, but not disrespectfully so.  This book tells what happened to the actual Plymouth Rock in the centuries after the landing of the Pilgrims.

-Eating the Plates:  A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners is a great book for studying the customs and eating habits of the Pilgrims and early settlers.  It also includes a Pilgrim menu and recipes which include fresh corn soup, red pickled eggs, Hot Indian Pudding, Succotash Stew, Spicy Cucumber Catsup, Bannock Cakes, Whole Baked Pumpkin Stuffed with Apples, Bearberry Jelly (cranberry), Swizzle and Hot Nuts.  This is a very interesting book!

-Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin is a book from my childhood.  This is a story about befriending those who may look different and takes place in New England.  A fun story for kids of all ages.

-The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern is a beautifully illustrated tale of the first Thanksgiving which "introduces children to the struggles of the Pilgrims during their first year at Plymouth Colony and the events leading to the historic occasion we celebrate today--THANKSGIVING."

-The Thanksgiving Primer is a "complete guide to re-creating the first harvest festival for your family, friends or church."  Includes primary sources, pictures from Plimoth Plantation, an order of service, music, a menu and recipes.  There are even drawings to use to design your own Pilgrim costumes.

-Of Plimouth Plantation by William Bradford is a bit heavy for the younger crowd, but a must-read for the older ones....at least portions of it!  We can only know what actually happened by reading first-hand accounts and you can't get more first-hand than this book written by the long-time governor of the Pilgrims.

-Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxes is another beautifully illustrated book that tells of how God prepared Squanto to be just a tremendous help to the First Comers.  A must read for the younger children, your older ones will enjoy it as well.

 -For years Jeff has read from Margaret Pumphrey's Pilgrim Stories (sometimes entitled Story of the Pilgrims) to the children each night during the month of November.  This is a highlight for the children and due to several church meetings this month it has been put off until this week.  Jeff was going to drop it for this year, but the children wouldn't let him.  It is so special to see big and little children gathered to hear daddy read!

While I know that it is too late for you to purchase these books for this year, perhaps you can find them for next year's Thanksgiving season.  Your time spent teaching your children about the true reason we celebrate Thanksgiving will be richly blessed.

O My Soul

Picture taken from our cabin on Ski Mountain in Gatlinburg last fall

Bless the LORD, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

Bless the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all His benefits;

Who forgives all your iniquities,

who heals all your diseases,

Who redeems your life from destruction,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Psalm 103:  1-5

On the deck of our cabin

From the tram on Ski Mountain in Gatlinburg last year

This portion of the Psalms has been floating around in my brain for the last few weeks.  It is very fitting for the Thanksgiving season. If you know me in REAL LIFE, you know that I love fall and we pull out all the fall decorations for our home in mid-September.  This year we've been enjoying some candlelit evenings with the smells of autumn in the air.  We have had times of sweet fellowship around the firepit with new and old friends.  We've celebrated another birthday this month (Jordan is 18 now and if I can get blogspot to cooperate I will post some sweet pictures soon) and we are looking ahead to a wonderful holiday season.  Devin has been poring through the cookbooks for some new recipes to try, I have been making a variety of goat milk soaps and learning how to make yogurt and applesauce in my fancy new slowcooker.  We have had another couple of weeks of sickness, but I think we are getting better now.  We were all able to attend church today!  This week will be busy with academics, house cleaning, music lessons, travel for Jeff and preparing for Thanksgiving.  

 May you all have a blessed time of thanksgiving and rejoicing with your families.  Are you busy preparing?  Are you looking through cookbooks for that special recipe?  Do you have some family favorites?  I'll be posting some of our family traditions and recipes in the next few days along with some other thoughts that have been in my mind lately.